as im in the planning stages of a new train room 20x20 basment all new addition to house . i want to sheet rock the walls and ceiling ive come up with the idea of painting the ceiling black with black track lights, (kinda got the idea from a recent trip to disney world) has anybody done this? and any photos would be of intrest to see, also any other thoughts you have would be welcome
thank you all bob w
Dear Bob:
While painting the ceiling black works for Disney, I would think that the light absorbtion would require additional illumination. I recently completed my new train room and used florescent lighting… I wished that I had opted for track lighting… It depends if you are working around the walls.
Merry Christmas
Roger
I couldnt agree more, track lighting is the way to. you can turn your lights to emphasize a certain scene or provide more light when working on a certain area. I had flourscent lighting on my old layout at my old house and I wont go back.
just my 2 cents, no I’m broke
jeff
I went with every surface of the layout room being painted in satin white for light reflection. I really didn’t want to use 3 20-amp fuses just for lighting my layout, and didn’t want to watch the electric meter spin like a propeller every time I wanted to play trains, so I decided on plain old incandescent lighting and as much reflection and light bounce as I could manage.
Remember, black walls and ceilings generally suck the life out of a room. Go to a decent modern museum that uses this technique, stand in the exhibit spaces for awhile, and REALLY ask yourselk if you want to subject yourself to that sort of environment for any LONG period of time.
If electrical economy is a concern, flourescents are much more efficient than incandescents. A lot of the energy burned by incandescents ends up as heat, as you can tell by touching each of the different types of bulbs.
If I wished for track lighting rather than flourescent, I wouldn’t hesitate to change it myself. The actual work involved takes less time than the drive to Home Depot, and if you’re a model railroader then you’ve already got the skills and probably the tools.
I like the idea of painting the ceiling black. I’m a painter by trade and have painted ceilings black in basements to hide the clutter of pipes, conduit, joists,etc. The amount of light reduction is minimal. There is ussually minimal natural light in a basement anyway and painting the ceiling black does’t really affect much.
The effect though is really nice. All your focus is drawn down from a distracting ceiling. In a train room it would be very effective, almost stagelike. Which is a good thing as your trains are the “actors on stage” on your layout.
Go for it!
I’ll be painting my layout ceiling, fascia, valence and possibly the floor, a satin finish black, with fluorescent lighting over the layout. I WANT that museum display look and also focus the viewers attention to the layout area.
Here’s some photos you can check out of Rick Rideout’s L&N layout to see how it looks to you:
http://www.rixproducts.com/rixmodel.htm
Merry Christmas!
I highly recommend trying the spiral flourescent bulbs (available at Dollar Strores and Wal-Mart). They are about the same size and shape of a regular incandescent bulb but use a heck of a lot less electricity for the same light output. Example is a 100W ouptut using only 25W). Best of all they give off very little HEAT which is my concern in a summertime basement. Somewhat expensive but they last a long time.